The basic problem here (which admittedly is far more visible in Europe) is that identifiable groups of people are not demographically equal, and in some cases, unprotected criteria are closely bound to protected criteria.

Recently we have also seen a few people nominally on the left citing things like the literature on regulatory capture – which admittedly is a very real problem – in support of sweeping claims to the effect that regulation can never do anything good.

ScentOfViolets, indeed, you did not imply that pharmaceutical companies are not behaving badly, as they clearly are (except for that whole creating-life-saving-drugs thing, which, admittedly, is a not insignificant part of their business).